TechBytes Episode 86: Debian GNU/Linux and Firmware

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2013-07-24 10:06:40 UTC
Modified: 2013-07-24 10:07:30 UTC

Richard Stallman in nature
Direct download as Ogg (00:06:42, 3.5 MB)

Summary: Richard Stallman's suggestion for people who want to compromise on the issue of firmware

THE latest Debian GNU/Linux, like the previous version (6.x), comes without notorious firmware by default, which causes inconvenience to some, yours truly included. I discussed this with Stallman and here are his views on the matter. ⬆

As embedded (HTML5):

Keywords: gnu fsf richardstallman

Download:

IBM Cannot Even Do Payroll, Now a "Legitimate Target" of Iran: Missiles or not, it seems like IBM systems will be targeted more by cybercriminals
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 10 Out of 200: Showing Public Tweets is Not a Privacy Violation, But This Isn't About Justice, It's About Censorship: It's time to put a stop to this abuse of process (which is what the Judge deemed it to be last year)
IBM's Payroll: Cannot Even Pay the People What They're Legally Entitled to: How financially-stressed is IBM at this point?
By Expanding to Advocacy of Ponzi Schemes and Bill Epsteingate (Sex Trafficking), Linux Foundation Revenue Grew to $220,730,594, But Salary of Linus Torvalds Not Even in Top 10 Anymore!: true!
In the Name of Transparency, Today We Show Our Defence and Counterclaim: already uploaded by the other side
Links 12/03/2026: Heating Bills to Soar, "Banks in Gulf Evacuate Their Offices": Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/03/2026: On Phone Anxiety and Bjorn "Looking for Someone to Take Over Antenna": Links for the day
Cultification: best candidates avoiding Debian leader elections: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman (RMS) et al Cited in 'Nature' (Journal/Site) Today, "CODE beyond FAIR": Under Open Access
The Register MS, on Verge of Collapse, Keeps Promoting a Ponzi Scheme for China: Publishers that participate in this simply don't care about their readers
Overview of False Narratives and Lies Used to Lower Salaries at the European Patent Office (EPO), Abandoning Patent Quality and the EPC: Many of the latter slides are the same as Munich's
Links 12/03/2026: Atlassian Layoffs, GAFAN Covering up Slop-Induced Outages, "Age-verification in Operating Systems and the Internet": Links for the day
The EPO's President, Who Covers Up Cocaine Use, is Trying to Suppress Communication Between EPO Staff Under the Guise of 'Privacy' (and in Defiance of a Court Ruling): Why does Europe's second-largest institution: 1) curtail communication among staff (including union) and 2) go out of its way to avoid obeying a court order from ILOAT in Geneva?
Exactly One Week Before Next EPO Strike, Media Intentionally Not Mentioning EPO Strikes: One form of propaganda technique/s involves the systematic suppression of certain topics, or of particular "narratives"
Suicide of disgruntled employee? Bus fire at Kerzers / Chiètres, Switzerland, at least six dead: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 11, 2026: IRC logs for Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Gemini Links 12/03/2026: "on Urbit" and the True Cost (or Criticism) of "Social Control Media": Links for the day
Slop About "linux" in Google News: Once people recognise that those sites are fake it's hard to 'unsee' what they are
An American War on GNU/Linux, Software Freedom, and British Investigative, Science-Based Reporting - Part V - Attempts to Take Down and Suppress Criticism of Back Doors Controlled by Microsoft and the American Government: The cost of maintaining illusions
Slides From the European Patent Office (EPO) Explain Why They're Striking, How They're Striking, and What Comes Next: A week from now the strike will go ahead
GAFAM Datacentres Are Facilities of War, So Risk of Downtime by Missiles or State-Sponsored Cracking Has Vastly Increased: How safe is your business in "clown computing" or DCs marked as some "legitimate targets" at wartime?
Companies That Take Away Blood and Sweat From the Community to Sell a Ponzi Scheme to Everybody: We need Free software that is run by communities
1,234 People Gather Online to Plan Next EPO Strikes and Other Industrial Actions: yesterday an online gathering orchestrated the next moves by EPO staff
Links 11/03/2026: Fake Videos Swarm YouTube, "Ukraine Can Now Manufacture ‘China-Free’ Drones": Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/03/2026: Lagrange for iOS and Android and "Turning a Folder of Git Repos Into Project Launcher": Links for the day
Kafkaesque: Unlawful Activities in the UK to Cover Up Unlawful Activities in the United States of America: Why is bribery and even extortion seen is OK? Because rich people do those things?
Former IBM Executive, Ron Hovsepian, Doomed S.u.S.E. (SUSE): SUSE is like a child nobody wants to raise
Quiet Layoffs or Silent Layoffs Alleged at Microsoft: Will some investigative journalists do their job now and ask Microsoft tough questions?
After a Long Lull LinuxTeck (linuxteck.com) Came Back Only as a Slopfarm: Unlike Linuxiac, LinuxTeck wasn't very active in recent years
Links 11/03/2026: EPO and USPTO Software Patents Thrown Out Again, Copyright Concerns Over Slop (Plagiarism Using Buzzwords): Links for the day
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 9 Out of 200: 5RB Barrister Does Not Even Know the Name of His Own Client (That He Was Paid Well Over $200,000 to 'Speak' or 'Cover' for): If you assault women in the United States, there's a barrister available for you in the UK
IBM's Fedora is Now Led by GAFAM Slop: The official word of Fedora is partly slop
IBM 'Dinobabies' Speak Out: "They want newbies out of school at a much cheaper rate"
Links 11/03/2026: "Drill, Baby, Drill" and Social Control Media Recognised as Threat to Democracy: Links for the day
5 Years Since Freenode Conflict: IRC isn't going away
A Week Ahead of Next EPO Strike the Staff Representatives Show the Administrative Council That the Office Lost the Best Staff, It's No Longer Attractive: the message circulated regarding the open letter to the Administrative Council
Jeff Bezos as an Individual Said to Have Enough Capital to Buy IBM: Assuming a market capitalisation of 234.70 billion
Starting Soon: Another New Series About Richard Stallman: There are some inside stories we can tell
Gemini Links 11/03/2026: School, Code Slop, and "Fancy Weapons": Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 10, 2026: IRC logs for Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Geminispace Continues to Grow: Geminispace Will Soon Have 5,000 Capsules
Very Little Slop About "Linux": We hope to see slop eradicated by year's end
BBC Lied for Its Longtime Sponsor (Bribes for 15+ Years) Bill Epsteingate, in Effect Covering Up Sex Trafficking of Underage Girls: The state of the media is truly awful
Microsoft GitHub is Not Free Hosting and It Won't Last: Not for much longer [...] Microsoft is afraid to say that it is pulling the plug, but it seems inevitable
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, March 2026: When will the media properly investigate this?
An American War on GNU/Linux, Software Freedom, and British Investigative, Science-Based Reporting - Part IV - Escalating to Ministers, Explaining the Severity of These Matters: British Sovereignty at Stake
"The Lost Generation" Came Back, This Time Literally: Based on my limited experience with young people ("alphas"), they're lost
IBM is Not Likely to Survive Another Decade: Despite having already survived over a century [...] Last week we saw claims that some company would likely acquire IBM for its remaining assets
IBM Has Just Been Sued Again by Its Own Staff (This Time a Manager, Stephen P. Gutierrez): IBM's behaviour towards its staff can prove costly
When a Company Says Its Layoffs are "Due to AI" Check the Debt (Typically the Real Reason for Mass Layoffs): The mass layoffs at Microsoft continue, but Microsoft hides those in some of the same ways IBM does
Doing More With Less: primacy of concepts rather than bells and whistles
Andy and Helen in Cybershow on Divesting From the United States' Technology and Politics: It is no longer considered a taboo to say this and it's not "anti-American" because many Americans can relate to and agree with such criticism
Links 10/03/2026: "GEMA v. Suno Copyright Case" and "Valve Faces PRS Lawsuit Over Allegedly Unlicensed Steam Music": Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/03/2026: Woods in UK, Slop Laziness, and "Small Technology and Small Economic": Links for the day
Garrett Announces LibreLocal Instance in Northampton, Massachusetts (USA): his message was the only one last month
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 8 Out of 200: Gross Misuse of UKGDPR to Protect the Agenda of American Back Doors (Mass Surveillance): Responding to bunk claims regarding UKGDPR and claims of 'analytics' in our sites
Links 10/03/2026: Oil Prices Rising, South Korean/US Military Assets Redirected: Links for the day
Links 10/03/2026: Rust Rewrites by Slop "20,171 Times Slower", "You MUST Review LLM-generated Code": Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 09, 2026: IRC logs for Monday, March 09, 2026

TechBytes Episode 86: Debian GNU/Linux and Firmware

Recent Techrights' Posts